One such “epidemiological†re-examination comes from my (Dominic Barter’s) work in Brazil, which has led me to posit that violence increases as we attempt to suppress painful conflict. Rather than being dangerous, conflict holds within it vital messages regarding unmet needs and areas of necessary change. Given this understanding, safety is increased not by avoiding conflict, but by moving toward it with the intention of hearing the messages within.
During the last seventeen years of working with conflict from this approach, I have observed and systematized the practice known as Restorative Circles (RC), a restorative response that engages individuals and communities undergoing painful conflicts in creating conditions for mutual understanding and collaborative action. The dramatic increases in social cohesion and safety in schools, local communities, organizations and families have prompted the United Kingdom’s National Endowment for Science, Technology, and the Arts to choose Restorative Circles as one of the world’s ten most “radically efficient†social innovation methods.
As an apt symbol of this process, the youth of one Brazilian school now use a circular, glass-walled “fight room†located in the center of their building to address their painful conflicts within the visible presence of the school community.
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